Re: BUG #5488: pg_dump does not quote column names -> pg_restore may fail when upgrading

Robert Haas wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 2:53 PM, Dimitri Fontaine <dfontaine(at)hi-media(dot)com> wrote:
> > Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> >>> Well as Bruce said this option won't solve the OP's problem, unless the
> >>> application he's using for managing the backups do use the option.
> >>
> >> Well, that's a pretty trivial change to the backup script. ?+1 from me on
> >> providing a pg_dump option.
> >
> > The application still have to have been using the option in the past.
>
> Well, if your point is that it's too late to help anyone upgrading
> from 8.3 to 8.4, then I agree with you. But we will likely add more
> keywords at some point in the future, and while providing an output
> format that quotes everything won't fix every potential problem, it
> might make life easier for some people. I certainly have had times
> where it would have saved me hassle and aggravation.

The point is that if WINDOW was not a reserved word in 8.3 but is in
8.4, then every reference to a user column of WINDOW in any 8.4
application will need to be double-quoted, and odds are the user did not
do that in 8.3.

I think users would rather have the restore fail, and know right away
they have an issue, than to do the upgrade, and find out later that some
of their application queries fail and they need to run around fixing
them. (FYI, pg_upgrade would use the new pg_dump and would not fail.)

In a way, the fact that the restore fails can be seen as a feature ---
they get the error before the go live on 8.4. (Yeah, I am serious.)

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ None of us is going to be here forever. +